The conker has dropped
by youhavedirtonyournose
Summary: Ron Weasley likes Hermione. And as you would expect, the loveable red-head has no idea how to deal with it! Read on to find out how things develop between the pair... This is my first fanfiction, however I hope you still enjoy it. Rated M for future chapters
1. Pre-Hermione jitters

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Harry Potter series. All the characters are the creation of J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction has purely been written on the basis of how much I admire her work and wish to entertain myself :)

A light breeze rustled over the grass, sneaking towards the red haired boy lying underneath the shade of the conker tree. Strands of his hair blew gently onto his closed eyes and tickled his cheeks which were decorated with a million tiny freckles. Leaf-shaped shadows danced across his face, while conkers dropped every now and then to the ground around him .

'Hermione' he whispered as he slowly turned onto his side, dimples appearing on his cheeks as his lips stretched into a small smile. His full lips parted slightly and his hot moist breath blew out as he let a low groan escape. He started to grow restless. His legs suddenly jolted straight as he gasped and he reached out above him trying to grasp at the air.

'Wait, please' he moaned in a pleading voice, his eyebrows furrowing with disappointment.

PLONK. Ronald Weasley shot up holding his forehead in agony. His mind flashing white to symbolise the sudden intense pain he was experiencing.

'Bloody hell!' he swore violently, biting hard on his bottom lip to try and distract some of the pain from his throbbing head. After a few minutes, the blinding white faded to a pale yellow shade and he felt sure that this was a sign that he could now let go of his head without it falling off. He blinked rapidly as blurred shapes danced in front of him, blocking his view of the true surrounding. The shapes slowly grew lighter as they merged with the lines of the trees, grass and sky. Looking down, he found the source of his pain straight away. A conker lay next to his foot, perfectly still and innocent looking. It was mocking him. He bent forward to pick up the offending conker and stared at it intently, wondering how such a light and flimsy object could have made him feel like he was dying. Well, at least he could empathise now with Harry's 'scar episodes'. He chuckled at the new lingo he had just come up with and grinned as he imagined the look on Hermione's face if he shared this with her.

His eyes previously focused on the conker began to haze over. Hermione Granger. That girl had to be the only person who could make him want to rip his ears off (to stop the constant nagging of course) and well... He couldn't bring himself to think of the other extreme of his feelings for her. It was so strange. The only way he could explain it to himself was by imagining that he had a 'Hermione Volcano' inside him. It had been dormant all these years and at some point, around the end of the last school year, it had been triggered. And oh boy was it active. Erupting all over the blooming place actually. All he had to do was doze off and he would be dreaming about her. Like just now for instance. He brought his knees to his chest and rested his chin on them. He could not help replaying in his mind what had happened in his latest dream.

Ron had been sat in an empty Gryfindor common room, reading over a piece of homework he had finished, when she had suddenly sat down next to him out of nowhere. She gently took the homework out of his hands and placed it on the table in front of the roaring fire. Gazing at him from under her eyelashes, she leant her head forward so that their lips were just a millimetre from contact. Then she slowly moved upwards, grazing her wet lips across his cheek and finally stopping beside his ear.

'Ronald, do I make you nervous?' she breathed, as she leant her body into his. He made to grab her. To hold her against him forever. But she quickly leapt up from the sofa giggling, and ran up the dormitory staircase. Before disappearing from view, she turned her head towards him for one last glance, a teasing glint in her eye. The dream Ron had considered this as an invitation to follow her up the stairs to her bedroom...

'Damn it!' he growled standing up quickly and pacing to try and get rid of his agitation. He needed to do something about this. It would not do to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow and be unable to control his desire for her. After all, he had no idea how she felt towards him. He liked to think that their arguments over the past years had been their own personalised foreplay, however, he had the uncomfortable notion that she may just see him as an annoying sibling type. This was not a pleasant thought at all. His shoulders slumped slightly as he considered this possibility. The big question is, how long could he keep his feelings a secret? And did he want them to be a secret? His insides squirmed uncomfortably as he realised with a jolt that he only had until tomorrow to decide how he would behave towards her. He grimaced sourly as he quickly came to the conclusion that whatever he decided to, it would be pretty much guarenteed that he would come across as a blithering idiot. Fact.


	2. Train people and fear

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter world and characters are the property of J.K. Rowling. I do not claim any of it as my own.

Kings Cross station was heaving with people all attempting to barge their way through the unmoving crowds. Hermione Granger hated train stations with a passion. They were full of people whose manners became non-existent due to how hell bent they were on getting a seat. She glowered at the back of a man nearly falling over a little old lady in his rush to get from one place to another. If she did not know better, she would have gladly grabbed his briefcase and swung it over his head.

'Oh darn' she thought to herself. She must not let herself become demoralised by the power of the train station. She smiled as she likened the situation to how people lose their souls in zombie movies. Staring into space, she let her imagination entertain ridiculous notions of how the staff might be putting some kind of zombie drug in peoples coffee to make them like this... And then the rude train people will take over the world! Overcome with a desire to let out the stereotypical 'villain laugh', she bit her tongue and instead opted for a snort of laugher. Not one person looked around in suprise at her outburst. She did not expect them to. After all, if people do not like making eye contact or conversation with people in public places generally, then they were hardly going to make an exception for those who seem, well, not 'normal'. Her humour died abruptly as she considered the word 'normal'. Everywhere you look, people are scared. She wondered if the human race had changed that much since the days where those suspected of having magic were burned at the stake. Chewing her lip, she pondered whether their fear of the unknown was because there was so much unknown. If there was less unknown, would there be less fear? More importantly, are people ready to let go off their fear and embrace the difference?

Her pace slowed as platform nine and three quarters came into partial view above the heads of the zombie mob. It took all her energy to remain calm and prevent herself from bolting towards the invisible portal. Reaching the barrier seemed to take an agonizingly long time to reach, but she was finally there. Nobody in her path to prevent her from crossing over and being reunited with the world she had grown to love. Even now in her sixth year of Hogwarts, she still feared that she would wake up one day to find that it had all been a dream. Parts of it still seemed too absurd, too impossible that she felt the need to protect herself by clinging onto the possibility that it might all be in her head. It was a necessary precaution. She knew deep down that if she let go of that thought and it did turn out that it was her imagination going wild, then the blow would be too much to take. It was getting harder and harder to keep up the defence and she was terrified that if she let it crumble down, then so would her world. So would her sanity.

And then she thought of him. Stubborn, irritating, handsome Ronald Weasley.

'Well' she supposed, 'If my head has made this whole magical world up, then thank you brain for putting Ronald Weasley in it'. And with that, she leant forward over her trolley and marched through the barrier with a big grin on her face.


	3. Blithering idiot

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter world and characters are the property of the amazing J.K. Rowling. I do not claim any of this as my own.

Ginny Weasley observed her brother carefully, like a scientist observing their test subjects. He was so strange. It seemed that over the summer he had tranformed from an arragont, argumentative toe rag, to a shy and brooding nervous wreck. Everytime you said something to him or would walk into his bedroom, without fail his eyes would grow alarmingly large and he would stand up quickly as if he had been caught with his pants down. At first it had been quite funny, but now it was getting worrying. His strange behavior did not seem to be relenting one little bit. Today Ron appeared to have a twitch. Every few minutes he would glance around him and run his fingers through his hair anxiously, whilst blowing out a huge gush of air as though he was trying to calm himself down. She looked at her twin brothers out of the corner of her eye to find them also studying Ron with concerned experssions.

'Wow', she thought to herself, 'it takes a lot to stop Fred and George from making fun of people'.

Suddenly, Hermione and her mass of bushy hair appeared in the middle of their little group, hugging everyone excitedly.

'It's so good to finally see you all!' she gushed, her eyes twinkling as she pulled Ginny into a bone-chrushing hug. She laughed heartily at the enthusiasm of her best friend as she was lifted slightly from the ground. And then Hermione turned to Mister Twitchy. Ginny watched with interest as Hermione hesitated slightly and looked up at Ron chewing her lip, her eyes doubtful.

'Hey Her', his voice squeeked to an abrupt stop as Hermione reached her arms tentatively around his neck and held him in a slightly more civilised embrace than she had the rest of them. Pulling away, she gave him a small smile which seemed to make Ron forget how to speak. He just stared at her and gulped. Ginny felt her brain whir to a sudden understanding. Oh now this was hilarious. It finally made sense! Hermione Granger and her brother were finally realising what everybody else had realised years ago.

The shrieking of the train wheels pulling to a stop caused them all to turn around to the welcome sight of the Hogwarts Express. They felt themselves being swept towards the train doors by the surrounding crowd, rushing forward in their haste to find a compartment. As they clambered on with their heavy trunks, Harry suddenly appeared behind Ginny looking very flushed and out of breath.

'Nearly missed the train', he breathed out, clinging onto her arm for a little support. She felt her arm tingle at the contact and tried to force the blush that was attempting to rise to her cheeks, back down to wherever blushes come from. She smiled at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. As she pulled away to turn back towards the train, she noticed his cheeks colour slightly.

'Oh god', she thought, 'what in the world possessed me to kiss him?' Keeping her eyes focused on the back of Ron's head, she tried not to sneak another glance at Harry's reaction. She needed to act as though what she had done was a normal way to greet someone, otherwise he would know exactly what that little kiss meant. For the past year, she had managed to keep her feelings a secret, for the sake of him not having to feel wierd around her. It was hard though when he appeared out of nowhere like that. His piercing green eyes looking at her, and his tousled black hair.. She scrunched up her eyes tightly to try and get rid of this very sexy image that was now taking over her brain. What she really needed, was to move on before she ruined the friendship they had built over the past year.

She entered the compartment where Ron and Hermione were already seated. In suprise, she noticed that the pair were sat very close together. Had something happened in the past two seconds to make them suddenly confident? She imagined that it had been Hermione who had decided on this close proximity, as her elder brother looked quite comical holding his breath. Smiling to herself, she wondered if Ron would ever get Hermione when he was acting like, well, a total blithering idiot.


	4. Hormones - Pain in the neck

DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter world and characters are the property of J.K. Rowling. I am just having a bit of fun and do not claim it was my own.

Ron stared intently at the bedroom ceiling, looking for answers to the millions of questions in his head. Why did he find it so hard to be close to her? The train journey had been an absolute nightmare. Hermione had attempted several times to engage him in conversation, but every time she moved he could feel her warm body brush against him and all he could think about was the dream from the previous day. He screwed his eyes shut and tried not to think of how flabbergasted she had seemed by his behaviour. She had asked him a dozen times if he felt okay, and even held his hand at one point, looking into his eyes with concern. That had been the final straw. The feel of her hand in his made him want to pull her onto his lap and kiss her delicious neck and lips. It took all his resolve to make some excuse about needing to ask his brothers a question, and he had remained in Fred and George's carriage for the remainder of the journey. Slowly sitting up, he took the picture from his bedside table and looked at it for a few moments. It was a picture of him, Hermione and Harry from the previous year, before his feelings for her had become complicated. He watched jealously as 'photo Ron' put his arm around Hermione as though it was the most natural thing in the world. More than anything, he wanted to do that now but these new feelings seemed to taint the action. Hermione Granger was the smartest witch in the school and he was sure that as bright as she is, she would notice and feel the difference between then and now. Sighing, he placed the photograph gently back on the side and stood up stretching.

There was a gentle knock at the door. He strode over to open it and found, to his surprise, his twin brothers standing outside looking a little anxious.

'Hey guys. What's up?' he asked curiously.

'Can we come in?' asked George tentatively. Ron was taken aback. He could not remember a time where either Fred or George had ever spoken to him in a tentative manner. Holding the door open, they both shuffled through and sat down on the side of his bed. Ron stood in the middle of the room, looking at his brothers curiously with his arms crossed. It was not like them to be so serious. It was making him feel extremely edgy.

'Okay. Well we er, we have this book. It's a good book. And we erm, think it will help you with Hermione...' Fred trailed off, holding the book out to him. Ron took the book without thinking and stared at his brothers in shock. How did they know? If he was that obvious then surely Hermione would have figured it out too.

'Well, I mean, we know you aren't really the sharing type so we'll just... leave you to it. I suppose.' finished Fred lamely. Fred looked at his brother as though to signal that they should leave and they both stood up in unison to make their way back out of Ron's room.

He looked down at the book in his hand and read '12 fail-safe ways to charm witches'. A part of him was offended. His brothers clearly felt that he was not capable of charming Hermione on his own, although another part of him heartily agreed with them. He needed some ideas desperately. Better to get ideas from a book than having to talk about it he supposed. Shrugging his shoulders, he sat back down on his bed, opened the book and began to read.

* * *

Hermione was sat in the common room, curled up in an armchair next to the fireplace. Her favourite book lay open on her lap, but for once she was not transfixed by the words on the page. Instead she was staring absentmindedly into the fire, watching as the flames danced around each other and licked at the wood hungrily. She wished she could lick Ron. To say that she was disappointed would be an understatement. Hermione had fantasized all summer about engaging in a light flirtation with Ron once they had both returned to Hogwarts. And yet, the day finally comes and the boy can barely string a sentence together. So needless to say, him acting as though he might pass out if she went near him was not what she had expected or wanted. She had to admit though, she did enjoy making him a feel a little nervous. After all, she was Hermione Granger and control was something that made her feel very satisfied. However in her many daydreams about Ron, she had always pictured him as being the one to wear the trousers. It may seem old-fashioned in some respects, but Hermione had control in so many aspects of her life that she desperately wanted, no needed, Ron to make her feel out of control. She wanted him to drive her crazy, to kiss her senseless, and not be able to stop himself from touching her… Blushing, she smiled timidly down at her book. More than anything, she hoped that Ron's behaviour earlier had been a one off.

Hermione suddenly noticed a flash of red appear in the sidelines of her vision, and her eyes frantically darted back to the book which she desperately tried to seem immersed in. Someone sat down in an armchair near hers and she kept her face stubbornly aimed at the book. If it was Ron, she did not want to 'notice' him yet. She had observed many girls undertake this strategy before. If a boy they liked was in the vicinity, the girl would suddenly make themselves appear busy. Hermione had always found this quite amusing and did not understand what the strategy was meant to accomplish, and yet, here she was doing it herself. In acknowledgment of this hypocrisy, she felt her face burn and so she leant a little closer to the pages in attempt to hide the red creeping across her face. The person in the chair gave a little cough to gain her attention. In panic, she quickly decided to act as though she was surprised to find someone sitting there. She looked up abruptly and blinked rather rapidly at none other than Ronald Weasley. He had changed into a t-shirt since they had travelled together and Hermione could not help but notice how toned his arms had become. She slowly began to realise how much his body had changed since their last school year. He had grown a few inches taller of course, but for the first time his broadness had caught up with his height. The effect of this caused Hermione to tingle with sexual desire, and she felt her body become quite warm.

'Hey Hermione. What you reading?', he asked casually, leaning back into his seat and flashing her a big grin.

'Well, erm. I mean Hogwarts: A History', she said in a breathy voice, still looking at Ron's matured physique.

Ron watched Hermione with interest. It was very obvious that she was eyeing him up and he was surprised at how little control she seemed to have over her staring. His body was beginning to react to her stare, he felt flushed and he was experiencing a tingling sensation everywhere. She was driving him insane. He leant forward tentatively to try and regain her attention and was amused by how her eyes flickered up to his and her expression turned quickly to shock at being caught out. The smirk that crossed his lips caused her to cringe further back into the chair and she averted her eyes.

'See anything you like?' he asked chuckled, raising an eyebrow playfully. At this, her hair seemed to grow wild with indignant anger and her eyes narrowed into slits.

'Excuse me for noticing that one of my friends is no longer a walking skeleton!' she hissed, talking very quickly. He laughed at her reaction and walked over to her chair and perched on the arm rest. Placing his arm over the top of the chair above her head, he looked down at her and gave her a light smile.

'Look, I wanted to apologise about earlier. I was being, well you know. Can we start again?' he asked in a hushed voice, leaning closer so only she could hear him speaking. She looked down at her book very quickly.

'Yeh, sure', she squeaked in a quavering voice. He smiled to himself. Those tips he got from that book already seemed to be working. He did not want to move back to his seat. For one, she smelt delicious and secondly, he did not have the willpower to move away from her. He leant over her slightly as though he had seen something interesting on the page of her book. At the same time he placed one of his hands on the side of the book to keep it steady, and in doing so, his hand briefly brushed against her thigh. His mind erupted and numerous inappropriate thoughts raced through his mind. At just one little touch, his body was urging him to pull her into an embrace and kiss her fiercely, take her in his arms and carry her up those stairs where they could be alone. Her exposed neck looking so inviting and it was only a few inches away from his eager, hungry lips. He could live with kissing her neck for now... A loud bang from the corner of the room caused Ron to snap his head away from Hermione rather abruptly.

'Bloody hell', he swore loudly, rubbing his neck in agony. Hermione looked up at him, confused and shocked by his sudden outburst, and then understanding dawning on her face as she noticed him rubbing his neck.

'Are you okay?' she chuckled, reaching out to squeeze his hand. Even through his pain, Ron felt a desire to keep hold of her hand and pull her towards him.

'I think I'm going to go and sleep this off', he muttered, and then suddenly realised that Hermione was still holding his hand. He looked down at her cross legged in the chair, with a little nervous smile on her face. Before he could chicken out, he bent down quickly so he was eye level with her. He paused briefly before gently taking hold of her chin and giving her a quick kiss on her soft lips. Without looking at her again, he turned away and speedily made his way to the staircase and up to his dormitory.


	5. What a tease

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Harry Potter series. All the characters are the creation of J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction has purely been written on the basis of how much I admire her work and wish to entertain myself :)

It had been a week since Ron had first kissed her in the common room. Every time she thought about it, it made her shiver with excitement. It was only a peck, but that simple kiss had been the start of them now making it a routine to kiss each other goodnight. Again, only pecks, but still enough to keep her up at night thinking about the next one. The tension between them had reached boiling point. She could not help but stare at him, and it thrilled her whenever she caught him looking at her, with that hungry look in his eyes. Hermione desperately wanted Ron to lose control and move past their innocent kisses, but she did not want to push him. She thought back to how nervous he had seemed on their train journey back to Hogwarts and was thankful that he was becoming more and more confident. She could not, however, say the same for herself. Ron was beginning to act very suggestively towards her. Whenever she caught him looking at her, his eyes would have a mischievous glint that made her feel as though his thoughts were anything but innocent. Even worse than this, he had made it a habit to lean in quite close to her while they were talking. A conversation about homework, for example, would start off with her nagging him to stay on top of it, to him leaning in so she could feel his breath while he talked. And his voice would go from normal to a murmur, and if she moved in as well, he would smirk and lean back again. It was so frustrating! Ronald Weasley had officially become a tease. Hermione had no idea how he was doing it, but it seemed that overnight he had become a professional ladies man. Everything he did sent jolts right through her body and it infuriated her that for once, there was something that Ronald Weasley knew more about than she did.

She needed to calm down. Thinking about him and his latest antics was getting her hot and bothered. Getting up from her bed, she rooted through her drawers and pulled out her shower bag and towel. She walked quickly to the shower room and gently closed the door behind her. Turning the shower tap on so the water had chance to heat up, she quickly got unchanged and climbed into the shower-bath, turning her face towards the blast of the water. The feeling of the water beat against her face felt amazing. It was just the right pressure and temperature, and she immediately felt her tight shoulders begin to relax. She turned around to pick up her shampoo bottle from the side and squeezed some into her hands. Lathering the sweet strawberry gel into her hair, her mind began to wander back to Ron. Why was she getting so frustrated? There was nothing wrong with how he was acting. In fact, the problem was that there was too much right. She smiled cheekily as an idea came into head. Maybe she should give that boy a taste of his own medicine. See how he likes it when she teases him half to death. She thought about how Ron had developed so much over the summer. All the girls had noticed it and it made her grind her teeth to think of all those pretty girls hanging around, trying to catch his eye. Fortunately, he seemed to be a bit too preoccupied with her at the moment to notice his new popularity with the girls. Hermione could not blame them. His muscles had developed which lessened the 'lanky effect' and his chin had broadened… He looked so manly. She felt a tingling down there; it had been doing it all week. Whenever she was alone and thinking of Ron, her body responded, whether she wanted it to or not. So far she had not given in to the temptation, afraid that he would somehow sense it and know what she had done. She looked doubtfully around the bathroom. Well, she was definitely alone now. Biting her lip, she reached down to satisfy herself.

The door of the bathroom opened quietly as Ron Weasley came in. Quickly noticing it was occupied and that someone had left the door unlocked, he muttered an apology and started to make his way back out. Freezing, he quickly turned back round. In his initial embarrassment he had not noticed that the person in the shower was a girl, and more importantly, that the girl was Hermione. She had not noticed him standing there watching her or heard his apology. He could not move. He had imagined Hermione naked before, but his imagination had not done her justice. Blushing, he suddenly noticed that she was touching herself. His body wanted him to tell her that he was there, to join her in the shower, but he knew that they were definitely not at that point yet. Plus she would kill him if she noticed him standing there. He quietly left the bathroom and raced back to his bedroom so he could think about Hermione and her shower antics in private. Hermione did not know it, but her plan to tease Ron half to death had succeeded.


End file.
